Concept

Unit: Lesson Plan #6

Unit Working Title: This I Believe

Unit Big Idea (Concept/Theme): Status Quo

Unit Primary Skill focus: Questioning, personal essay

Week __2__ of 3; Plan #__6__ of 9; [90 mins.]

Plan type: _____Full-Detail ____Summary

Content Requirement Satisfied: Syntax instruction, Model Text

Unit Learning Objectives:

SWBAT:
Cognitive: None in this lesson plan.

Affective and/or Non-Cognitive: None in this lesson plan.

Performance:

7. Students will be able to explore and develop their own belief systems.

c. Students will revise drafts of their own This I Believe statements.

SOLs:

8.7 The student will write in a variety of forms, including narration, exposition, persuasion, and
informational.

g. Revise writing for clarity of content, word choice, sentence variety, and

transitions among paragraphs.

h. Use computer technology to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish writing.

CCSs:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.2c
Use appropriate and varied transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas
and concepts.

Methods of Assessment:

Diagnostic

At this point, the teacher will
have seen 1-2 drafts that are
in progress for each student.
The teacher also will have had
conferences with some (if not
all) students during the
previous class. (7c)
Completing the ratiocination
practice on a model text will
help the teacher see how well
the students can handle this
exercise with their own work.
(7c)

Formative

Students will complete the

ratiocination exercise on their

own work, guided by the
teacher. Students will save a
separate file with the colorcoding so that the teacher
can check progress and
completion. (7c)
Students will show the
teacher at least THREE
bolded, revised sentences in
their drafts according to the
sentence starter focus. (7c)

Summative
Throughout the remainder of
this week, students will have
time in class to continue
discussing ways to question
the status quo as well as
developing their own beliefs
in a persona, This I Believe
statement. Students will
continue working on their
written This I Believe
statements in each class
period this week. Students
will turn in a draft of their
This I Believe statements
for teacher feedback. (7c)

Beginning Room Arrangement:
[Changes in this arrangement that become necessary later will be noted in the plan]

Students will be seated in their usual base groups. There will not be a Do-Now today.

Procedures/Instructional Strategies
[Note: Any words that represent what I would say directly to students appear in italics.]

1. [__5__ mins] Welcome:

I will take a few minutes to welcome students to class and briefly go over the agenda for the day. I will tell
them that we will start with a mini-lesson for revision of the drafts weve been working on throughout the
week. Then, after we practice the revision technique on a model text and their own work, we will have
another writing workshop to finish and prepare to turn in a draft. I have printed their drafts so far from their
blogs so that they will have a hard copy for the revision technique today.

2. [__35__ mins] Mini-Lesson on Ratiocination for Sentence Starters:

Explanation & Materials Gathering (5 minutes): I will explain ratiocination to students as a revision technique
that involves color-coding or highlighting your writing to make potential issues more visible. For our
workshop, we are going to focus on how students are starting their sentences in order to improve the
overall flow of the This I Believe statement. I will tell students that this activity will help them create
power sentences that will greatly enhance the effectiveness of their papers. After I finish explaining,
students will come to the front of the room to get ONE colored pencils.

Practice on Model Text (10 minutes): I will use an excerpt of my own This I Believe statement that I have
been working on alongside students. I will have my excerpt projected on the white board, and I will use a
brightly colored dry erase marker to bracket on the board. I will also provide students with a handout of my
excerpt so that they can do this alongside me, getting the physical feel for what they will be doing. I will

explain that I am going to read through my excerpt and put brackets around the first word of every sentence
with my marker. I will do this, showing them what they will do alongside me. After we have put brackets
around all of the first words, we will write them all out in a list to the side. Students will do this below the
excerpt on the handout. Then we will discuss words that are repetitive or that dont make very much sense. I
will ask the students what they notice and how they think I could make my writing better. I will guide them
toward a discussion about transition words and sentence variation. When I notice that Im using similar
words over and over again, I can stop and brainstorm synonyms or just other ideas that I could use that
would be less repetitive, and so on. We will write two power sentences together that use better starter
words for my sentences.

Student Practice on their writing (10 minutes): I will distribute the printed drafts for students so that they
can complete this task on their own work. I will circulate around the room while they are doing this to help
them if they get stuck or are unsure of how to color-code and list correctly.

Students write power sentences (10 minutes): I will signal that students should be wrapping up their colorcoding and listing and moving on to writing their three super sentences. I will continue circulating around
the class to help students who may need extra scaffolding to come up with better sentence starters beyond
what we have discussed as a whole class.

3. [__35__ mins] Writing Workshop:

During this time, students will have a large chuck of class to continue writing and revising their drafts of their
This I Believe statements. I will inform students that they need to submit a draft via GoogleDoc so that I
can provide them with feedback before the final draft is due next week. I will ask them to start that
GoogleDoc now, moving their text there and sharing it with me immediately. I will also ask them to bold face
their three power sentences so that I can check that they have completed those. While students are
working, I can conference with them as needed. I can also monitor their GoogleDocs and provide comments
as they are writing. This will help me give them as much feedback as possible to assist them through the
writing process.

4. [__5__ mins] Wrap Up // Exit Card:

Students will complete an Exit Card letting me know what kind of multimedia project they are interested in.
This will allow me to read through their interests over the weekend and ensure that I have good examples
and packets for them the following week during their digital workshop time.

Differentiated Instruction to accommodate one or more of my profiled students:

Sam Workshop time can be particularly useful for Sam because it allows him to really work at his pace,
regardless of how fast or slow. Because students are still drafting and revising, the GoogleDoc feedback
option will be particularly useful for Sam because I can continue prompting him to revise throughout the
workshop time.

Materials Needed:
Laptop or tablet
Teachers Model Text Excerpt
Colored Pencils
Teacher Excerpt Handout
Printed copies of student drafts from their blogs
Index cards